Brea gets greener

Graphics

Brea The city has a shimmering new park.

Wildcatters Park, a 16-acre open space with a football field and baseball diamond, barbecues and lawns, officially opened this week with a dedication by city officials and the park's developers, Shea Homes and Standard Pacific Homes.

Wildcatters, named in honor of Brea's oil-drilling past, is a community park mandated by the city and Orange County as a condition for allowing the Blackstone development, a nearly 800-unit housing project in the Brea Canyon area. . The park features athletic-grade turf on its sports fields (tougher than regular grass) and dozens of plant and tree species on the west end. It also has a children's play area designed to incorporate the look of the former oil fields.

“This is a great community benefit,” Brea Community Services Director Chris Emeterio said.

Shea and Standard Pacific invested about $3 million in the project, according to Jim Holas, Shea's community development manager. The developers worked with the city to ensure the park contained all the amenities the community needed and wanted, according to Holas and city officials.

The park went through multiple changes, Emeterio said, including reducing the number of baseball fields and adding the football field, and adding parking.

“They didn't really need to make any changes,” Emeterio said. “The developers pumped in a lot of money into this park, more than most developers.”

Brea, in fact, did not spend a cent on the project. Shea and Standard Pacific, financial partners in the Blackstone development, agreed to pay for this park as well as a future dog park across the street and sign over the land to the city.

“The park is helpful from a community standpoint to sell homes,” Holas said.

This park was several years in the making, Emeterio said. The city long has known that it needed more park space for its youth athletic groups and families, but it lacked both space and money. Then Blackstone came along, and the city knew it had an opportunity to get the park it desired.

The work that has gone into developing Wildcatters – and the continual maintenance that all parks require – should be immediately worth it, said Sean Matlock, the city's community services manager.

“We truly got what the community needed,” he said. “We're expecting a big summer.”

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.